579 of 695 people (83%) found this review helpful8 people found this review funny

Recommended

4.1 hrs on record

Posted: March 14, 2014

I propose to you, those who read this review, that is those who have a steam account, and are able to buy video games and play them, video games being a form of art, which are played for fun and enjoyment, by those that partake in such things, that you should buy this game, that is to say purchase said product, you won't regret it, and no disappointment will follow.

The game itself plays like a basic bullet hell game with basic movements (up, down, left, right).It also features all three characters, switchable at all times, every character has its own purpose (for example Blossom can melt ice, Buttercup can shoot through solid walls.......)

I was surprised about how smooth the game actually plays, unfortunately the length of the game is ridiculously small.If you do not care about clearing every room or collecting every achievement, this game will roughly take 1.5 hrs to complete. Probably around 3 hrs, considering you want to complete everything the game offers. WHICH IS ACTUALLY NOT TOO MUCH.

The story of the game is rather.... meh. It feels like a Newgrounds browsergame (which it was probably intended to be)You start your journey as Buttercup, realizing that your sisters are missing and you forgot all of your powers. The first 20 minutes of the game consist of collecting your abilities and sisters. (which includes two boss fights), after that you fight another boss to rescue the Major and the last boss is Mojo himself (If there are some other, hidden bosses, I apologize as I didn't clear every room).

5.99 (EUR) might be alot for some people, but I guess the money was well spent. I have no regrets getting the game and if they were actually going to make a sequel with more gameplay, more story depth and more features, I wouldn't mind paying 20 Bucks.

My conclusion is that you can, without a doubt, buy this game without regret if you enjoy either the bullet hell genre or Powerpuff Girls.... and if the developers were to add DLCs or a sequel with more content (more than 2 hrs of content that is) it could easily become the Touhou of western civilization. (lolnope)

It's pretty reminiscent of Metroid and Castlevania, or Metrovania in this case. And the gameplay is very addicting. What really got me hooked is the option to play as the Classic Style since I'm not quite keen on the Modern Style, but at least there are options and options are cool. :)

There are a couple of gripes I have with this game. The single continuity error that was present in the 2014 special, which is Bubbles using ice powers, is present in this game. I mean come on! Blossom's well known for being the ice princess and Bubbles with her Sonic Scream. Also, is it just me or do some of the voiceovers seem a tad bit lacking in some areas. In any case though, those are minor complaints as the gameplay made 'em forgivable. (Still not pleased with Bubbles having ice powers instead of Blossom though.)

But nonetheless, overall, it's a very fun game and I highly recommend this to any PPG fan out there! :D

Let's make this quick as I'm sure your all up to your eyeballs in Steam Sale games.

If you got given this to play with, give it a go. While the scope for this seems absolutely tiny, it's still a well made, bitesize experience that has gameplay that gels together rather pleasingly.

The Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville (or, if you will, TPG:DoT), is a 2D sidescrolling shoot-em-up that reminds me mainly of bullet hell games. Thankfully (or unthankfully depending on the player) its no where near as hard but the idea of flying around with a freedom of movement in order to avoid robot bullets reminds me of very, very little that I've ever played. However, there's also an exploration on a slant of metriodvania style exploration where you are free to explore rooms like a pig looking for truffles in a wedding cake to look for power ups and ability upgrades.

In fact, the Metroid vibe is strong here. The story has Mojo Jojo creating the umteen-hundred and twelth deadly robot to use on Townsville. The girls are called, it's business as usual. Well, until Mojo uses a memory thingy that forces the girls to forget their powers, rendering them to nothing but walking. So, your first few rooms are all about looking for the ability to punch and then to fly. From there, the game picks up at a steady pace.

There's a reason I believe this game works pretty well from a gameplay side, as the two mechanics work well with The Powerpuff Girls in general. Throwing powers around is what they do and exploration takes advantage of their ability to fly. Flying gives the player access to anywhere they choose, making exploration effortless as they only have to move in that direction to check something out. Therefore, a Metriodvania style layout for the game is perfect as exploration isn't much of a chore but can still be rewarding if encouraged.

TPG:ToD happens to reward you with the memories of your forgotten powers (I don't know how, but your fighting a chimpanzee with his brain in a fancy bucket. I just roll with it), tokens to increase your generous power and health meters (at least in Normal Difficulty) along with boosters. These are optional buffs to your game that boosts some aspect of your characters. Things like flying faster, taking less damage, recovering your power meter over time. Handy stuff. There's also the ability to have more than one at a time if you explore enough.

The powers rather neat while they mess with what I remember the girls able to do a bit. Your able to switch between each of the three girls with slight alterations between their powers, once you save Blossom and Bubbles from Mojo's robots. You get six attacks; punches, a standard shot that splits if it hits anything, eyebeams, dashing that can allow you to break through certain bricks in walls and a power unique to each girl. Buttercup has a sound blast thing that fires through walls. Blossom has fireballs that cause heavier damage and melt ice blocks. Bubbles has an ice shot that fires a few shards to slow enemies and, for some reason, deactivate purple force fields. Again, I just rolled with it but it does not seem based in logic at all. You would only find that if someone told you or through random attempts with everything you had at your disposal.

The sixth attack is the ability to charge up your moves for something more devastating. While this seems like a small set of unlockable, they're actually pretty well paced and enjoyable to use, with further additions as you move through the game like deflecting projectiles or improving charge times for attacks.

In fact, length is one of the biggest issues I have with this but it's probably not for what you think. The length is short but that means the level designers don't necessarily run out of ideas before the game is through. Your powered up, fight your way through some environments, look for goodies, fight some bosses and then collect all the stuff. Great, wonderful, brilliant. It gives the feel of a flash game that was put on Steam but a very well constructed one.

Now, I do wish there was more game on offer here but it's honestly not because the experience was bad. It was good. I just think the licence has only been flirted with.

The Powerpuff Girls have a bizzare and colourful rouge's gallery; The Ganggreen Gang, HIM, Fuzzy Lumpkin, Princess Morbucks, Sedusa and! And...I dunno, Quackor? Having just Mojo to fight seems like a major miscalculation as you miss out on one of the best parts of the show. This also robs the game of a possible extra layer of variety. The entire game ought to be one level in a much larger game where, perhaps, you fight the next villain of the week in sequence.

Or, even better, do it Megaman style and have us choose which to go after first, giving different powers and abilities for each villain you go after. Otherwise, the game feels short-changed rather than just short.

Like I said, it's not for being unentertaining. It's for feeling too much like a demo for something much, much larger that utilised more of the Powerpuff lore. And I damn well hope that is what this is.

Radian Games! If your reading, pleeeaaaase make another one of these! There's plenty to be done here and what I've seen is really promising. If I had to be a bit of a git and set you homework, I would suggest you sit down with Super Metriod or Metriod Prime and pick out what they do in terms of exploration as a central concept. I'm kinda inclined to say, the game could use a bit of bite. Maybe only let the players on casual know where the abilities are on the map? It might help, it might not but I am not adverse to a good ol' puzzle to get my shiny-shiny upgrade.

Also, how about adding more from games like Parodious and Touhou. A Fair Challenge was the one thing I couldn't get enough of from TPG:DoT. Obviously, going absolutely nuts would be silly but a little more tactical thinking with enemies that's more involved than 'run up an shoot/punch it' would be fantastic. Afterall, adding more baddies could give us more enemy types. The Ameboys could have henchmen that split into multiples of themselves. Or HIM would demand only certain attacks on certain enemies. Because HIM is meant to be a massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥-canoe like that.

OK, I'll leave you guys be for now. I'd hug you all for this game but I don't have the plane fare. Just convince Cartoon Network this needs a sequel. Or at least DLC!

Otherwise, I'd say this was a fantastic start. The choice of both visual styles as standard is frankly flattering and I appreciate it greatly. Whatever personality and humour they could squeeze in is almost as charming as the show it's based on but it's hard to capture that completely.

Finally, the music design wants you to know your in a computer game...I don't know how to take that. It's certainly not bad, just odd. The music usually does enough to be distinct enough to indicate that one environment is different from another if the visual style doesn't remind you. I also don't remember them ever fading into the background as they all seemed to have little flourishes that made you take notice of them for just a second then slip back into a quiet groove. The most memorable being the cave areas at the beginning of the game when the music builds and then slows to a strange halt.

It's just the use of NES style electronic elements don't feel right somehow...

Is TPG:DoT worth a go? Well, yes. I'm not 100% sure about the price because of everything about it's length and missed potential that I mentioned before. But, it's a decent romp that will not make you sick of it. As far as I'm concerned, there's enough here to wet the appetite between larger games you might have brought. Or perhaps for a sequel? I leave it up to Radian Games and whoever they consider charming enough to ask Cartoon Network about it.

22 of 32 people (69%) found this review helpful1 person found this review funny

Not Recommended

3.1 hrs on record

Posted: July 16, 2014

It's a pretty bad Powerpuff Girls game, and pretty bad Metroidvania. BUT it is a Powerpuff Girls game AND a Metroidvania, and this is the reason for so many good reviews (Not accounting the many 1-review-only and other suspicious reviews probably done by sockpuppets...)

The name of this game should be"Powerpuff Girls vs Flying Metal Circles that don't resemble robots at all" : Every enemy is a circle with some pseudo-geometric form over them. Even bosses are giant circles and feel the same.

BAD ANIMATIONS - Heck. The main characters have maybe 20-30 frames. For every thing they do. Yeah, you can play as classic or modern styles, but I would prefer if they had double its animation frames and only one mode.

BAD, LAZILY MADE AND DESIGNED ENEMIES - As discussed above.

BAD DESIGN - Get all powerups, no boss rush or anything, no long-hard-final-section-to-enjoy-all-powerups, Final Boss almost immediately - Giant Circle with Mojo in the middle - The end.

MEDIOCRE SOUNDTRACK

Average Gameplay - heck. THAT saved the game from being a total cr#p. Then, after killing 300 circles, it becomes a chore anyway.

Even for an indie game, it feels rushed.

But... Powerpuff Girls (that are naturally awesome) + Metroidvania style pseudo-sandbox (that is naturally the most awesome kind of game) = even a bad game will have its appeal.

If you're a PPG sucker like me, then buy it on a sale. Then finish once and move it to the "MEH" folder on Steam Library.

I have 2.7 hours on record and I beat the game easily in that time. For me, that's criminally too short for a Metroidvania game, and that is what informs my "no" vote. There's barely enough time to get into it. It's a fun little game, well designed and with decent gameplay; it's a great little diversion for fans of the Powerpuff Girls show. But it's far too short for the price, and fans of the Metroidvania genre will feel like they've just gotten past the intro stage just as the game is ending. This game was ported to mobile with a lower pricepoint, and I think it's much better suited there.

In the end, I think it's worth picking up at <$2.00, but if it's more than that, skip it and go for something else.

That's was the thought that kept going through my head as I played this game. "This isn't exactly terrible, actually... it's pretty difficult all things considered". You see 'Powerpuff Girls' is a kid's cartoon from the old golden days of the Cartoon Network where you'd have the fantastic trio of Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo and Powerpuff Girls to contend with, as well as the old classics of Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast to keep you entertained. I sort of grew up watching these in my Teens, and my Wife was obssessed with the Powerpuff Girls.

As soon as I put the game on and the music played, my Wife looked up to see just what I was doing. A strange look of confusion and intrigue. So, I had to explain how Trechetican had gifted me the game ("No Troll" he said) and wanted to see it played. Then I had to explain why someone on the internet would gift a game to see someone else play it... "No Troll", he said. "No Troll" I said. No Troll.

Anyway...

The game caught me by surprise. I was expecting an easy romp with little thought or design. While it's not the most taxing of games, it does attempt to give you something play with a very loose Metriodvaina feel as you build up you skill set and backtrack through the level to progress. The only issue I had with this is that it sort of happened all too fast.I can't decide if this game is perhaps aimed at younger people, who perhaps might not have the attention span to sit for 2 hours and finish it one playing (which is highly likely), or if the designers became a little lazy.

For the record, you can choose Classic style from the get-go. Choosing it is the correct answer.

PPG: DOT is a 2D Metroidvania that has you flying around levels rather than running (comparable to Aquaria), with some shoot'em up elements (namely, a bunch of projectiles flying at you). The plot is that Mojo Jojo has erased the memories of the girls' superpowers (but not each other, oddly enough). As a result, you collect memories (which enable you to use your powers again), starting with the basic punch. Why do you need to remember how to punch something? Speaking of, which can't you jump before you can fly? It goes from the basic Powerpuff powers like flight and laser beam eyes to abilities that can help you in combat, like the ability to cancel out energy attacks by punching them. Your powers use up, well, Power, which has a Power Bar, along with your Health Bar. Both of these can be upgraded. You can also unlock Boosters, which give you further benefits, but you can equip a maximum of 3 out of 5.

The graphics look like a browser game, though the girls look on-model with the show. There are cutscenes that are voiced by the original actors/actresses, but the characters are static in them. Would've been nice to have them fully animated. There are a variety of robots to fight (though most are just round, blue things that shoot at you). There are 4 bosses including Mojo Jojo himself, so unlike other Metroidvanias, fighting a boss is not a precursor for gaining a power, though the first two will unlock Blossom and Bubbles (you start as Buttercup). Each girl plays largely the same, though each has their own special power. You can switch between them on the fly by pressing LB and RB (on the 360 controller anyway). Buttercup's Shockwave can go through walls (like Metroid's Wave Beam). Blossom's Fireball can melt ice blocks, but there aren't that many of them. Bubble's Ice Barrage can destroy the red-and-blue energy fields (but not the yellow ones).

There are some problems with the game however. 1. It's short, completed in 2.6 hours with 99.4% completion (I have no idea where that last uncleared room is). 2. It's relatively easy. I never died once, even on Normal, though I did give the New Game+ Mojo's Key Quest a try, which is not only harder, but gives you a new map, and I did wind up dying rather quickly. 3. There's a lot of screen tearing here. This isn't something I normally notice, but it's there. I'm sure more graphic-oriented people will be bothered by it as well. Unless there's an option I need to look at that fixes it.

The initial asking price of $7.99 (though it's on sale ATM for $6.39, and I paid $5.37 because of the $1.02 in my Steam Wallet), and I think that's a fair price. It's a good game overall, and I would recommend it for any Powerpuff Girl fan (even the kids, who wouldn't have any problems with this).

20 of 33 people (61%) found this review helpful2 people found this review funny

Not Recommended

0.3 hrs on record

Posted: December 22, 2014

Well. Powerpuff Girls really hit my sentimental side, when i decided to buy this game. Yeah, i like TV show, so i thought this could be fun trip down the memory lane.Wasn't fun at all. I know i played this for short period of a time, but it was really painful and sad experience.Bad level desing, tasteless characters, music not so good, visuals could be better. It was pretty messy, incoherent, my sense of orientation was destroyed by this game.Honestly my first game i played that wasn't good in any respectable measure in my opinion.